A high-profile fashion show descended into front-row awkwardness when organizers forced Jennifer Lopez to hand over her umbrella in the middle of a downpour.
The grumble came at Stella McCartney’s Paris Fashion Week event, when staff at the open-air runway presentation at the British Embassy clamped down on guest accessories as the show prepared to start.
The 57-year-old singer and actress arrived at the venue only to find her designated seat soaked, forcing her security guard to step in and dry the chair before she could sit down.
Sitting in the front row beside creative consultant Alasdhair Willis, she initially relied on her bodyguard to hold the large umbrella over her head while she checked her phone in the rain.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Lopez’s representative for comment.
When a guest seated directly behind her quietly passed along the venue’s request to drop the cover, the pop star mouthed “Oh” and attempted to keep the umbrella up anyway.
Moments later, event staff intervened. She looked visibly annoyed before sheepishly surrendering the giant umbrella to the staff.
Fashion influencer Sebastian Amundsen was sitting nearby and saw it all. He said the star seemed irked by the staff taking away her cover.
The 22-year-old told the Daily Beast that the celebrity went into diva mode early on. Her bodyguard held her umbrella for her until he was forced to move away so the show could begin.
“So the bodyguard gave her the umbrella since he can’t sit next to her during the show,” Sebastian explained. “She was annoyed holding her umbrella by herself. Then she got even more annoyed when she had to give away her umbrella, and that was a bit funny.”
The uncomfortable moment unfolded next to an empty seat reserved for Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who ultimately skipped the event altogether.
Sebastian managed to get a selfie with the icon, even though her security tried to stop it. “The bodyguard said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no,’ and then she saw that I was sitting right there, and she said, ‘OK, fine. You let him.’ And then the bodyguard said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.’ And then she said, ‘OK, that’s enough,’” he said.
The seating incident followed another tense moment in the French capital days earlier, when the star confronted a swarm of photographers, telling them to stop “acting crazy” and demanding they relax.
The outdoor commotion arrived amid a packed nine-day schedule for Paris Fashion Week, featuring 68 runway shows and 34 presentations across the city. The week’s star-studded lineup opened earlier with an unannounced performance by Celine Dion under the Eiffel Tower, where the legendary vocalist sang her hit “I’m Alive” during a major beauty showcase.
